Shownotes
Welcome back to The Inside Scoop! This podcast episode elucidates the pivotal role of standardized assessments, specifically the PSAT and SAT, in facilitating students' college and career readiness. We engage with Kevin Maloney from the College Board, who elucidates the myriad benefits these assessments provide, including access to substantial scholarship opportunities and crucial insights into academic preparedness. Our dialogue underscores the significance of early testing, which not only gauges student readiness but also empowers families with essential tools for navigating the complexities of college applications. Furthermore, we explore the invaluable resources available through the College Board's Big Future program, which offers comprehensive college and career planning assistance. Through this discussion, we aim to demystify the assessment process and equip parents and students with the knowledge necessary to leverage these tools effectively.
Guest:
Kevin Maloney, Senior Director of K-12 State and District Partnerships, College Board
Useful links from the podcast:
Chapters:
- 00:09 - Introduction to the Inside Scoop
- 01:07 - Understanding the College Board and Assessments
- 05:26 - Unlocking Opportunities: The Role of Assessments in College Preparation
- 08:59 - Scholarship Opportunities and Assessments
- 11:12 - Exploring Big Future: A Resource for Students and Parents
- 14:57 - Preparing for the SAT: Resources and Strategies
Podcast Home:
https://the-inside-scoop.captivate.fm/
Cobb Schools on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/@TheRealCobbSchools
Give us a review:
https://www.podchaser.com/TheInsideScoop
Here's the link to let us know what you'd like to hear:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VYTRCLG
Cobb Sports Podcast:
https://cobb-sports.captivate.fm/episodes
The Cobb County School District:
https://www.cobbk12.org
Takeaways:
- Standardized tests such as the PSAT and SAT are essential for college readiness and career preparation.
- The College Board offers numerous free resources to assist students in achieving their academic goals.
- Students can access over $300 million in scholarship opportunities through participating in assessments.
- Early exposure to assessments provides students with valuable insights into their academic readiness and future paths.
Transcripts
Psats and sats.
Speaker A:What's new in that world?
Speaker A:Coming up next on the Inside Scoop.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the Inside Scoop.
Speaker A:I'm your host, David Owen.
Speaker A:Today we're talking about an important milestone in every student's journey.
Speaker A:Preparing for college and career.
Speaker A:Standardized tests like the PSAT or the SAT suite of assessments equip students and families with some powerful tools, whether your child is in middle school or in high school.
Speaker A:Thinking ahead to college apps, today's conversation is going to help you gain some valuable insights.
Speaker A:I'm excited to be joined today by Kevin Maloney with the College Board, State and District Partnership Team.
Speaker A:Welcome to the podcast, Kevin.
Speaker B:Thank you, David.
Speaker A:That's a great long title.
Speaker A:Do you have an abbreviation for that?
Speaker B:We go by stp.
Speaker A:Stp, sdp, db.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That makes more sense.
Speaker B:It does.
Speaker B:That's usually how.
Speaker B:So College Board has a lot of entities inside organization and I work directly with states and districts to support college readiness for career readiness for students.
Speaker A:So the College Board is just kind of a term that everybody has heard of, but few people truly understand what the College Board is all about.
Speaker A:We know it has something to do with the sats.
Speaker A:Can you kind of do?
Speaker A:I guess a primer would be a good description of the College Board, the SAT suite of assessments for the new parents out there in particular.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:College Board has been around for over 100 years supporting educators and students for the SAT, the AP exams for a very long time.
Speaker B:We're a non profit organization that is dedicated to providing access for all students.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And those assessments are for what specific purpose?
Speaker A:Ultimately?
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:To provide students with the very best option to be prepared for college and career readiness.
Speaker B:Whether it's taking an assessment to learn about reading and writing skills or whether it's to learn more about specific content by taking something in Advanced Placement, really to kind of help prepare them for what's next.
Speaker A:Okay, now I've got a left field question for you, so don't let this freak you out, but you worked in career readiness.
Speaker A:I know that.
Speaker A:You know, some students will go to a program like what we have here in Cobb, ceta, the career.
Speaker A:Don't ask me to figure out what those letters are on the moment, but it's basically helping to train students to be ready to go down both paths.
Speaker A:But they think they're going to go into a career, so they immediately go into that arena.
Speaker A:But sometimes they do a quick stop by, so to speak, in a.
Speaker A:What a trade school?
Speaker B:It could be.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's really the wrong.
Speaker A:That's an old term, I guess a technical school.
Speaker B:Technical school, Technical education.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And that also requires SAT score.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Typically, since most of those type career programs require certification exams or, you know, a readiness or a piece, they typically can use our assessment because it's in reading and math, to identify their skills that are showing readiness for career.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Well, can you walk us through some of the free opportunities?
Speaker A:I know you're not a Cobb person per se, but you work closely with our Cobb team, right?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:I am the Cobb county human for the College Board.
Speaker A:To put it simply, a human is good.
Speaker A:That's always a plus.
Speaker B:I support all the district's goals as far as preparing students for college and career.
Speaker B:We work very closely to provide specifically the PSAT8.9 for all students here in Cobb county in 8th grade in the middle schools.
Speaker B:That's one opportunity that unlocks a lot of information and support for parents to know.
Speaker B:Is my student on track for the PSAT nmsqt, which we'll talk about.
Speaker B:Lots of letters.
Speaker A:Wait, what?
Speaker B:The National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is actually taken by 11th graders to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship.
Speaker B:But when they take it earlier on in 10th grade, which is supported by the Department of Education through the legislator, they also get access to $300 million in scholarship opportunities.
Speaker A:Oh, wow.
Speaker B:So it kind of unlocks a readiness part, but also scholarship and also some other tools and resources around kind of college and career planning, because it's a big picture work for the College Board to make sure students know what's out there for them, to empower them, to kind of look into things.
Speaker A:Okay, so you've already unlocked two key purposes for taking these assessments, and that is, first of all, qualifying to get into an institution of higher learning, and then the second is to possibly be able to get some scholarship funding as a result.
Speaker A:That's really cool.
Speaker A:So you mentioned all of these letters.
Speaker A:And by the way, when I saw those letters, my first thing that came to my head was New Mexico something.
Speaker A:I don't know why.
Speaker A:So what other purposes might these assessments have?
Speaker A:We typically think of them as.
Speaker A:As preparation for once we graduate from high school, being able to go to that next step.
Speaker A:But is that all that that really is for, or is there more to it?
Speaker B:There's more to it.
Speaker B:I think specifically, if we're Talking about the PSAT8.9 8th grade, we've opened up a new access point called Big Future School, which is tied to our Big Future program, which is a free college and planning tool that allows students to kind of as they take the assessment in the fall here in the district, they can then unlock the ability to learn more about colleges and careers and scholarship.
Speaker B:They'll also get scores.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:I know scores are a big part of testing, but that doesn't identify or solidify who the student is.
Speaker B:It just gives them an opportunity to kind of learn more about who they are and kind of lean into what that test will do for them in the future.
Speaker B:Also, something that a lot of people don't know is our tests are vertically aligned.
Speaker B:And that's just a technical term.
Speaker B:That means the assessment score you get in 8th grade would be the same score you would have gotten on the SAT that day.
Speaker A:Okay, so it's almost like inflation adjusted.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:No, absolutely.
Speaker A:What you're expected to know by the time you're in 8th or 9th grade informs what you expect later.
Speaker A:That's interesting.
Speaker A:I didn't realize that.
Speaker B:And a big part of that too is a lot of students are looking at colleges when they're younger, in eighth grade, ninth grade, and they don't really know where they want to go or what's appropriate.
Speaker B:By knowing the scores they have early on, they can start to see, oh, I need to improve these skills to improve my score.
Speaker B:And we have a lot of resources to support that too.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So it's not just to beat yourself up about it, right?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And a test doesn't identify.
Speaker B:I mean, it doesn't like, put you in a box.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:It's just a moment in time.
Speaker B:And you should look at it that way as an opportunity.
Speaker B:Especially early on when you're in middle school and early high school, as you move into 11th, 12th grade, it gets a little more serious for students because there's other things going on, like applications for colleges and admissions, but early on, it's really meant to be a check in.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And kind of an unveiling of the invisible monster thing.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Taking away some of the mystique and the fear that you might otherwise have in the sat.
Speaker B:And something the district did, I'll just add, was when we jumped in in Cobb county, was we shifted to a digital assessment.
Speaker B:Cobb county was early to give the PSAT 8, 9 to 8th graders, which gave them a really good preview of what the digital test would look like early on.
Speaker B:So now that those same students are taking further assessment with us, whether it's the sat, they've already had a couple of check in opportunities.
Speaker B:So they were really well prepared for the digital assessment when we shifted.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Do you see again, a left field question for you?
Speaker A:But is there any data that reflects how a student who's been prepared by the PSAT does compared to one who has not?
Speaker B:Yes, we have a lot of data that shows that readiness experience gives students the comfortability, but also the awareness of what kind of skills are going to be assessed.
Speaker B:But the best thing that actually shows students performance over time is their teachers leaning into teaching them the skills and the opportunity that's connected to the assessments so they can prepare.
Speaker B:But yeah, there is definitely a clear indication that when students take our assessments in different grade levels, it's building capacity to do better later on.
Speaker A:Okay, so it's kind of a.
Speaker A:For what we call a formative assessment in the district.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:That's awesome because that, that enables you as a parent to be able to guide your student, or hopefully your student to guide themselves into areas of learning that they might otherwise kind of tend to avoid.
Speaker A:I would think that's really cool.
Speaker A:So earlier you said that the testing allows students and families to be able to pursue scholarship money as well.
Speaker A:Are there any more details that you could provide on that?
Speaker A:Like what do these scholarship giving organizations typically look for in the test scores?
Speaker B:So we have a lot of nonprofit partners that specifically focus on providing access for a very broad group of students.
Speaker B:So we have a couple ways in which students can access scholarships when they test in PSAT.
Speaker B:The NMSQT, the National Merit in 10th and 11th grade.
Speaker B:That does give them direct access to about $300 million in nonprofit partners that the students can explore.
Speaker B:But they also have in big future, which we can talk about, I know we probably will, is the opportunity for students to actually look up scholarships and do a search based on their own filters.
Speaker B:And then a third scholarship is actually a specific big future scholarship which incentivizes students to go in and use our career and college planning tools to build a college list, look for scholarships, and as they complete those steps, they get entered into drawings.
Speaker B:We've been fortunate here in Georgia to have a lot of micro winners of $500 scholarships from that scholarship.
Speaker A:Every bit helps.
Speaker B:And also in the past several years, we've had many students like 8 or 9 win $40,000 scholarships.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It's been crazy.
Speaker B:And those opportunities we'd love to have for students here in Cobb, we haven't had a winner yet in Cobb, so hopefully that's going to happen.
Speaker B:Parents, encourage your students use a Big future.
Speaker B:Yes, please.
Speaker A:Good grief.
Speaker A:Okay, so again, you are a fountain of information here.
Speaker A:So for a student or families to be able to pursue that scholarship money As a reiteration here, they have to have had at some point the NMSQT.
Speaker B:For certain scholarships for certain partners are looking for scores.
Speaker B:The 300 million I referenced those partners.
Speaker B:The scores don't mirror or have the same selectivity as National Merit, which is that 11th grader test.
Speaker B:So it's a much broader opportunity for students to get access to scholarships.
Speaker B:But additionally, in Big Future, we do have an opportunity for students to look up scholarships regardless of their taking an assessment with us.
Speaker A:Okay, so you mentioned Big Future again.
Speaker A:Is that a website?
Speaker B:It's a website.
Speaker A:Go in depth a little more on that, if you don't mind.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:So bigfuture.org is the website.
Speaker B:It's really just meant to be a college and career planning tool for students.
Speaker B:It provides a career search which aligns back to their PSAT8.9 if they took the assessment.
Speaker B:It also gives them NPSAT, NMSQT and the SAT will all kind of give them data on their college and career journey.
Speaker B:But it's meant to give students and parents, if you'd want, is the opportunity to really look into what is out there for my student.
Speaker B:Whether it's, you want to stay local for college, how do you fund that, whether you want to go abroad and study out in a different state, New Mexico, for example, as you mentioned, looking up what does the University of New Mexico require, what is the scores, requirement for sat, what kind of things do I have to have?
Speaker B:So Big Future unlocks.
Speaker B:And it's a free resource, really, the ability to look for colleges, careers, scholarships.
Speaker B:The Career Interest Survey is really powerful.
Speaker B:It's a newer feature of the College Board site that lets students kind of see what careers are available in their area, but also how much those careers will afford them.
Speaker A:Okay, so let me try to reiterate some of this stuff for the sake of clarity.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:So this Big Futures website has tools on it that allow a student's PSAT scores to be entered in with perhaps some additional questioning to help ascertain what that student might be strong in as a career choice.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker A:Wow, that is a huge tool right there.
Speaker A:That's an amazing resource for anybody.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:I'd love to take it now, see if I might be able to have a good career at some point.
Speaker B:And we have a special tool for the PSAT8.9 and NMSQT for in school.
Speaker B:NMSQT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Speaker B:Those assessments were given in school, actually give the students an ability to see the careers that match up here in Georgia.
Speaker B:And it gives them more depth of information on their answer sheet or their score report, specifically around what those careers require as far as a degree goes, what kind of attainment it takes, but it's also aligned to the student interest.
Speaker B:So that's a new feature that we've included that I think here in Cobb, when talking to principals and schools, they've been very interested to share that with students because we really want students to kind of be unlocking that empowerment of, like, what am I doing next?
Speaker B:Why does this matter right now as they go through this journey from 8th grade through the end of high school?
Speaker A:So this is.
Speaker A:As a parent, I've got a lot of kids.
Speaker A:I've got seven kids and still got some in school.
Speaker A:We're working them through, but.
Speaker A:And it's not like they keep failing.
Speaker A:And I just have a.
Speaker A:Anyway, enough about me to have this sort of a resource to not only help determine what the student might be best at in life, but also to be able to help with all of those financial, just in some cases, terrifying forms and information for who requires what and so forth.
Speaker A:This is an invaluable tool for parents to have.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So what are some of the free practice resources that might be available to students and how do they work with platforms like, I think the Khan Academy, and I heard of one called Blue Book, but the only Blue Book I know of is for selling used cars.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a different one.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay, so I hope it is.
Speaker A:So tell us more about that side of the prep.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:So there's several ways for students to Prepare for the PSAT 8, 9, the NMSQT or the SAT.
Speaker B:But one of the main ways is through the Bluebook application.
Speaker B:And that's the testing app that we use for these assessments.
Speaker B:Now that we're a digital test, students also take AP or Advanced Placement tests on that same platform.
Speaker B:So students might have familiarity depending on what they're doing in school, but that has practice tests locked into it so that students can do practice, and then it will give them feedback on how they did on those assessments to do more practice.
Speaker B:Then we have a skills insight tool and a question bank that's open for students to kind of go in and be like, oh, these are the areas I want to work on and improve.
Speaker B:Here's some kinds of questions I can practice to learn more about why that tool also gives them kind of the answers and the rationale, which helps them understand why they got it right and wrong.
Speaker B:Not just, you know, you didn't understand this.
Speaker B:And here's the answer.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker B:And then you spoke to Khan Academy, which has been a long partner with us for many, many years now, for over a decade.
Speaker B:And they provide very in depth through their official SAT digital platform, their prep program, the opportunity for students to kind of pick up on a mastery growth mindset as early as they want.
Speaker B:But specifically the sat, it allows them to kind of build up foundational skills and then work toward advancing their skills.
Speaker B:So for our students in eighth grade and our younger students, it's a big, big platform practice for them to build up all those skills.
Speaker B:Because what we don't want is students to go into an assessment not knowing what's on it, not knowing why they're taking it, and then just not being feeling prepared.
Speaker B:So there's plenty of opportunity for them to practice and prepare.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So half of the battle, I would think, in taking an assessment like this is just the anxiety, right?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So familiarity is.
Speaker A:Well, Kevin, thank you so much for coming in and sharing these insights.
Speaker A:Again, as a parent, I can appreciate these and I certainly am going to have my kids look into some of these resources.
Speaker A:But before we wrap up, can you tell parents and students where they can find more information and some of these resources about the SAT suite of assessments?
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:The easiest way is to just go to SAT suite College Board.
Speaker B:If you go there, you can also go to bigfuture.org just make sure you're on the college board.
Speaker B:Those two resources are probably the best ones for parents to learn one about the assessment or specifically about the Big Future program.
Speaker B:But both are invaluable for students.
Speaker B:And students can learn more about their AP potential too, from our assessment.
Speaker B:So that tool you'll find linked there as well so we can figure out what students courses they would need to take in high school to be prepared for those college and career opportunities.
Speaker A:Oh, that's fantastic.
Speaker A:Well, to our listeners, thank you so much for listening to us.
Speaker A:Joining us on the Inside Scoop, all of those links that he mentioned are going to be in the description and in the show notes, so don't panic to try to write everything down if you haven't already.
Speaker A:Don't forget to like subscribe and share this episode so that other parents can benefit from the discussion we've heard today.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for listening to the Inside Scoop, a podcast produced by the Cobb County School District.
Speaker A:It.
